JAMIE
KAPLAN

Hi everyone! My name is Jamie and I’m a third-year English major here at Northeastern. This is also my third year at Spectrum. I remember when I walked into my first meeting, I was intimidated. I had just begun exploring my love for creative writing, and was doing everything I could to nurture that love into becoming a tangible skill. I was in my spring semester of freshman year, still adjusting to life in Boston, and a short assignment for my Writing Boston class in the previous semester had shown me that I could not only write, but that my writing could be meaningful for people outside of myself. After discovering my writing style and experimenting with different genres, I thought it was time to put my writing to the test: I wanted to submit it to the on-campus lit mag. 

At Spectrum, I was welcomed with open arms. That didn’t change the fact that I was a nervous wreck at every general meeting, waiting for the day that my piece would be the one being critiqued and I would have to listen to what people had to say about it. That day did not come, thankfully, but I learned that even if that did happen, I had nothing to be afraid of. Spectrum became a safe space for me to expand my knowledge about art and literature, to become a better writer, and for my writing to be validated by my peers.